As used herein, the term display device is intended to encompass all devices capable of displaying visual content, including, but not limited to, computers, including laptops, notebooks, tablets and desktops; mobile telephones, and; televisions (TV). Each of the foregoing devices include many component parts, including the physical case or cabinet in which individual components may reside, circuit boards, circuit elements such as integrated electronic components, and of course the display panel itself. Currently, these display panels are flat display panels comprising liquid crystal display elements, organic light emitting diode (OLED) display elements, or plasma display elements, and of course the glass or plastic substrates on which many of these elements are disposed and/or enclosed by. Typically, the edge portions of the flat display panels and the display device itself are utilized for electrical leads and various other electronic components associated with the operation of the display panel, such as circuits that drive the panel pixels as well as LED illuminators in the case of a LCD display panel. This has resulted in flat display panel manufacturers encasing the edge portions within and/or behind a bezel, which serves to conceal the foregoing components, but also obscures the edge portions of the display panel thereby reducing the overall image size.
For aesthetic reasons, flat panel display makers are trying to maximize the image viewing area and provide a more aesthetically pleasing appearance, and accordingly minimize the size of the bezel surrounding the image. However, there are practical limits to this minimization, and current bezel sizes are on the order of 3 mm to 10 mm in width. Therefore, to achieve the ultimate goal of no bezel at all, an optical solution has been proposed that will give the observer the impression that the image is occupying the entire panel surface while simultaneously reducing a gap between the image-forming display panel and a display cover.